THE EFFECTS OF THE
US EMBARGO
AGAINST CUBA AND
THE REASONS OF
THE URGENT NEED
TO LIFT IT
EMBARGO
Prohibition by a country of the departure of ships or certain types of goods from its
ports. Instances of confining all domestic ships to port are rare, and the Embargo Act of
1807 is the sole example of this in American history. The detention of foreign vessels
has occurred more often, either as an act of reprisal designed to coerce diplomatic
redress, or in contemplation of war with the country to which the vessels belonged.
Embargoes on goods, however, are far more common. Although an embargo can cripple
a nation's economy, the use of an embargo alone has typically failed to achieve the goal
its imposition was intended to secure. The United States has used embargoes for both
economic and strategic purposes. An example of the former was the prohibition of gold
bullion exports in 1933, while the latter is seen in the embargo placed on certain war
materials in 1940. An embargo may also be used as a political device. Thus, in 1912 the
president was empowered to forbid the export of munitions to Latin America. The
Neutrality Act of 1936 gave the president a similar power with regard to warring
nations anywhere.
Embargos were authorized as a form of sanction by the Covenant of the League of
Nations, and were applied against Paraguay in 1934 in the Chaco dispute with Bolivia,
and against Italy for its invasion of Ethiopia (1935-36). Article 41 of the United Nations
Charter permits embargoes in cases of military aggression, and during the Korean War,
the United Nations called upon its members to refrain from sending arms and strategic
materials to territory controlled by the North Koreans and Chinese.
In 1960, the United States imposed an embargo of all goods, excluding food and
medicine, on Cuba, and in 1962 the Organization of American States , amid great
controversy, established its own Cuban trade embargo (since abandoned). Since the
1970s, economic sanctions of this sort have increasingly been used by the United States
and the United Nations against nations that disturb peaceful relations, such as Iraq
(imposed in 1990; exemption to sell oil in order to buy food and medicine granted in
1996) or Yugoslavia (imposed in 1992; eased in 1995 with removal tied to compliance
with the Dayton Accords; new embargoes imposed by NATO (OTAN) during the
Kosovo crisis in 1999); or against nations that have maintained white minority
governments, such as Rhodesia (in the 1970s) or South Africa (in the 1980s).
THE EFFECTS OF THE US EMBARGO AGAINST
CUBA AND THE REASONS OF THE URGENT
NEED TO LIFT IT
! The US embargo against Cuba is condemned by an ever larger and by now
overwhelming majority of states members of the United Nations General Assembly.
However, it continues to be imposed by the US government’s isolated but stubborn will,
in spite of the United Nations repeated injunctions, notably its resolution 56/9 of the 7th
of November 2001. The purpose of this expose is to denounce this embargo in the
strongest terms for the violation of law it represents, and for its total lack of legitimacy.
These measures of arbitrary constraint are tantamount to a US undeclared act of war
against Cuba; their devastating economic and social effects deny the people to exercise
their basic human rights, and are unbearable for them. They directly subject the people
to the maximum of suffering and infringe upon the physical and moral integrity of the
whole population, and in the first place of the children, of the elderly and of women. In
this respect, they can be seen as a crime against humanity.
The votes of the United Nations General Assembly on the “necessity to lift the blockade
against Cuba”
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
For
59
88
101
117
138
143
157
155
167
167
167
167
Against
2
4
2
3
3
3
2
2
3
3
3
3
Countries against the embargo lifting
USA, Israel
USA, Israel, Albania, Paraguay
USA, Israel
USA, Israel, Uzbekistan
USA, Israel, Uzbekistan
USA, Israel, Uzbekistan
USA, Israel
USA, Israel
USA, Israel, Marshall Islands
USA, Israel, Marshall Islands
USA, Israel, Marshall Islands
USA, Israel, Marshall Islands
In 2002, four countries abstained from voting : Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Malawi,
Uzbekistan.
! Imposed since 1962, the US embargo has been reinforced in October 1992 by the
Cuban Democracy Act (or "Torricelli law"), which aimed to restrain the development of
the Cuban economy’s new driving forces the by hitting the inflow of funds and goods
by 1) the strict limitations of the transfers of foreign currencies by the families in exile,
2) the six-months ban to enter US harbours of all ships that had anchored in a Cuban
port, 3) sanctions against firms doing commerce with the island even though under the
jurisdiction of a third state. The embargo was systematized by the Cuban Liberty and
Democracy Solidarity Act ("Helms Burton Law") of March 1996, aimed to harden the
"international" sanctions against Cuba. Its Title I generalizes the ban to import Cuban
goods, demanding, for example, that exporters give proof that no Cuban sugar has been
integrated in their products, as was already the case with nickel. It conditions the
authorization of currency transfers to the creation on the island of a private sector
including employment of salaried staff. Still more enterprising, Title II fixes the
modalities of a transition to a "post-Castro" power, as well as the nature of the
relationship to have with the United States. Title III grants the US tribunals the right to
judge demands for damage and interest made by a civil and moral person of US
nationality that considers having been injured by the loss of property in Cuba due to
nationalization, and claims compensation from the users or beneficiaries of this
property. At the request of the old owners, any national (and family) of a third state,
having made transactions with these users or beneficiaries, can be sued in the United
States. The sanctions incurred are set out in Title IV, which provides, inter alia, the
refusal of the State Department to give US entrance visas to these individuals and their
families.
! The normative content of this embargo - specially the extraterritoriality of its rules,
which intend to impose on the international community unilateral sanctions by the
United States, or the denial of the right of nationalization, through the concept of
“traffic” - is a violation of the spirit and letter of the United Nations Charter and of the
Organization of American States, and of the very fundamentals of international law.
This excessive extension of the territorial jurisdiction of the United States is contrary to
the principle of national sovereignty and to that of non-intervention in the internal
choices of a foreign states - as recognized in the jurisprudence of the International Court
of Justice. It is opposed to the Cuban people’s rights to auto-determination and to
development. It also contradicts strongly the freedom of trade, navigation, and
movement of capital, all that the United States paradoxically claims everywhere else in
the world. This embargo is moreover illegitimate and immoral because it attacks the
social benefits realized by Cuba since years and imperils their successes - recognized by
many international independent observers (in particular those of the WHO, UNESCO,
UNICEF and many NGO). They are its public systems of education, research, health or
culture, in plain exercise of human rights. Furthermore, the threat that this coercive
operation poses for US nationals and for foreigners extends the practical impact of the
embargo to domains completely or partially excluded from the texts, such as food,
medicines or medical equipment and exchanges of scientific information.
The harmful economic effects of the embargo
! From an official Cuban source, the direct economic damages caused to Cuba by the
US embargo since its institution would exceed 70 billion dollars. The damages include:
1) the loss of earnings due to the obstacles to the development of services and
exportations (tourism, air transport, sugar, nickel; 2) the losses registered as a result of
the geographic reorientation of the commercial flows, (additional costs of freight,
stocking and commercialization at the purchasing of the goods…); 3) the impact of the
limitation imposed on the growth of the national production of goods and services
(limited access to technologies, lack of access to spare parts and hence early retirement
of equipment, forced restructuring of firms, serious difficulties sustained by the sectors
of sugar, electricity, transportation, agriculture…); 4) the monetary and financial
restrictions (impossibility to renegotiate the external debt, interdiction of access to the
dollar, unfavourable impact of the variation of the exchange rates on trade, "riskcountry", additional cost of financing due to US opposition to the integration of Cuba
into the international financial institutions…); 5) the pernicious effects of the incentive
to emigration, including illegal emigration (loss of human resources and talents
generated by the Cuban educational system…); 6) social damages affecting the
population (concerning food, health, education, culture, sport…).
! If it affects negatively all the sectors, the embargo directly impedes - besides the
exportations - the driving forces of the Cuban economic recovery, at the top of which
are tourism, foreign direct investments (FDI) and currency transfers. Many European
subsidiaries of US firms had recently to break off negotiations for the management of
hotels, because their lawyers anticipated that the contracts would be sanctioned under
the provisions of the "Helms-Burton law". In addition, the buy-out by US groups of
European cruising societies, which moored their vessels in Cuba, cancelled the projects
in 2002-03. The obstacles imposed by the United States, in violation of the Chicago
Convention on civil aviation, to the sale or the rental of planes, to the supply of
kerosene and to access to new technologies (e-reservation, radio-localization), will lead
to a loss of 150 million dollars in 2003. The impact on the FDI is also very
unfavourable. The institutes of promotion of FDI in Cuba received more than 500
projects of cooperation from US companies, but none of them could be realized - not
even in the pharmaceutical and biotechnological industry, where Cuba has a very
attractive potential. The transfer of currencies from the United States is limited (less
than 100 dollars a month per family) and some European banks had to restrain their
commitment under the pressure of the US which let them know that indemnities would
be required if the credits were maintained. In Cuba, the embargo penalizes the activities
of the bank and finance, insurance, petrol, chemical products, construction,
infrastructures and transports, shipyard, agriculture and fishing, electronics and
computing…, but also for the export sectors (where the US property prevailed before
1959), such as those of sugar, whose recovery is impeded by the interdiction of access
to the fist international stock exchange of raw materials (New York), of nickel,
tobacco, rum.
The harmful social effects of the embargo
! The US government’s announcements intimating that it would be favourable to the
relaxation of the restrictions concerning foodstuffs and medicines went unheeded and
cannot hide that Cuba has been the victim of a de facto embargo in these domains. The
reduction of the availability of these types of goods exacerbates the privation of the
population and constantly threatens its dietary security, its nutritional stability and its
health. A humanitarian tragedy - which seems to be the implicit objective of the
embargo - has been avoided only thanks to the will of the Cuban state to maintain at all
costs the pillars of its social model, which guarantees to everyone, among others, a
staple food for a modest price and a free consumption in the crèches, schools, hospitals,
and homes for the elderly. That is the reaffirmation of the priority given by the
authorities to the human development, which explains the established excellence of the
statistical indicators of Cuba concerning health, education, research, culture… and this
despite the extremely limited budgetary resources and the numerous problems resulting
from the disappearance of the Soviet bloc. However, the continuation of the social
progress in Cuba is impaired by the effective extension of the embargo.
! The pressures exerted by the US Departments of State and Trade on the suppliers of
Cuba have concerned a wide range of goods necessary for the health sector (medicines
destined for pregnant women, laboratory products, radiology equipment, operating
tables and surgery equipment, anaesthetics, defibrillators, artificial breathing
apparatuses, dialysis apparatuses, pharmaceutical stocks…) and went as far as to
prevent the free supply of food for new-born babies and of equipment for unities of
paediatric intensive care. The production capacities of vaccines conceived by Cuba are
hampered by the frequent lack of spare parts and of essential components that have to
be imported, as well as water treatment centres. This embargo provokes today an
unjustified suffering of the Cuban people. The shortages affecting many medicines,
which are not produced in Cuba, complicate the immediate and complete
implementation of the procedures of treatment of breast cancer, leukaemia,
cardiovascular or kidney diseases, and HIV for example. Moreover, the US authority’s
infringements on individual freedom of movement and scientific knowledge…
(restrictions on travel of US researchers, the disrespect of bilateral agreements on Cuban
researcher’s visas, refusal to grant software licences or to satisfy the orders from Cuban
libraries of books, magazines, diskettes or CD-Rom of specialized scientific
literature…) have in fact led to the extension of the embargo to areas formally excluded
from it by the law. One of the most fruitful opportunities to develop cooperation
between nations on a solidary and humanist basis is therefore blocked.
! The embargo is also in contradiction with the principles of the promotion and
protection of human rights, which are desired by the US people for themselves and for
the rest of the world.
! For all these reasons, this unacceptable embargo has to cease immediately.
ON THE OTHER HAND
On the other hand, the US government and the US people that thinks embargo is
necessary and is the only way to “kill” the evil empire of Castro says things like this:
The US embargo towards Cuba is easy to remove, only 3 events must occur:
As stated by congressmen Lincoln Díaz-Balart, March 25 1998, Washington, DC.The establishment of a transition government in Cuba that would free all of Cuba's
political prisoners
The legalization of all political parties.
A call for public elections.
The US embargo of Cuba is directed at its communist system and its supporters. That
system that is a declared enemy of the US, that is capable of committing physical and
moral harm, that does not respect anything or anyone, that is a liar, that is a murder ,
demonic and deserving of being eliminated.
The partial embargo only manages to limit the spread of communism, to change the
current system, it is necessary to denounce and confront it. But not taking action and
forgetting will only manage to prolong the suffering of the Cuban people.
The embargo has been most effective in the last few years due to the end of Russia's aid
to Cuba. This economical aid provided to Cuba is estimated to be 70 to 120 billion
dollars. This aid is larger than that received by all of Latin America. It would also be
necessary to include military aid in these numbers, however, it has not been possible to
put a dollar amount on this type of aid.
The embargo is not responsible for the hardships of Cuba's citizens and this is
understood by the majority of Cubans. Cuba's land is very fertile and capable of
nourishing its people. Castro is the person responsible for the Cubans not being able to
eat fruits, vegetable, coffee, sugar and fish. However, with respect to medicines, how is
it that Castro is capable of exporting 2 tons of medicine to Peru and sell medicines,
made in Cuba, in Nicaragua?
The US embargo towards Cuba accounts for only 10 to 14 percent of the worlds total
economy. Castro conducts business with the rest of the world! This tyrant only seeks
US dollars and other countries are helping him in order to collect the debts which Cuba
owes them. For example: Cuba owes $800 million to Spain & $750 million to Japan
alone.
The embargo directed towards South Africa was a world wide blockade, just like the
blockade directed towards Iraq oil supplies. Nelson Mandela is currently in power due
to the effectiveness of the embargo which forced a change in his country
In 1958, Cuba possessed .86 heads of livestock per person and its consumption of fish
per pound was 5.6 compared to 5.4 in the United States. (Statistics provided by the
United States Department of Commerce.)
The per capita of the Cuban people in 1959 was $2000, today it is $120. Sherritt
International, a Canadian company in Cuba, employs Cubans at a wage of $9500 per
year. This money is paid to the Cuban government which in turn pays the Cuban
workers in Cuban pesos to what amounts to $10 per month. This is slavery because the
workers have to no rights to negotiate better salaries or benefits.
The state of slavery is maintained by the Tyrant to maintain supreme rule over the
island. The system uses employment like blackmail in order to maintain control of its
dissidents. This type of labor practices is opposed to democratic principles and human
rights. The United States, the largest supporter of these types of rights and principles
in the entire world, loses its leadership and morale when it legitimizes a tyranny and
when it makes commercial treaties or mutual agreements with tyrannies like those of
Castro and Saddam.